Fifthcolumns
Interesting tale. IMHO the consistency that you (and others) have observed in your experiences may say more about the way the controls were handled during entry and recovery than that the type concerned will never bite.
In the RAF the two seat Vampire was the T11. I was trained on those and one of our instructors was up with one of my course doing spinning when they had a delayed recovery. The QFI took control and after several more turns said standby to eject. That was enough for the lad who went there and then. As in your case the T11 then recovered so the QFI flew it home. We watched it taxy in without a lid and no stude. In came the QFI “I’ve lost me lad” he exclaimed. Made quite an impression on us at the time.
We often wondered whether the change in airflow from jettisoning the large canopy (presumably a loss of some lift at the front) or the seat firing, or both, could have been what triggered the recovery. My mate landed in a farmers field, very ploughed, very muddy and in the pouring rain. He got up and as the farmer approached tried to speak. All that came out was a high pitched squeaky voice that said “Isn’t it a lovely day?”
JF